Thanks Aunt Kathy for the fun video!

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Nov 16 - Mud, Mud, and More Mud

My new comp is Elder Clarkstone from Niagra Falls, Canada, as you already know. He's cool and we've been having fun together. I'm putting him to work and I'm going to have him perform a musical number on the piano his first Sunday here. It'll be good, we're going to have a great transfer. . . mostly of tracting and finding investigators, but great nonetheless. This weekend was District Conference (Stake Conf) for all of Harkov, so that was cool to see such a big gathering of the Saints here. The talks were good, I hate translating though. It's such good practice, but it's so draining, I feel like I can't remember anything they talk about because you just are so focused on trying to spit out the right words and you only focus on a phrase at a time. But I'm sure the talks were really good. I translated for this cool kid I'm good friends with, Guillermo. He's a student here from Ecuador and Saturday night he opened his misison call. He's going to Ecuador but a different place than where he's from. The Galapagos Islands are in his mission, how sweet would it be to serve there? Anyways, training has been fun, he's a very chill, down to earth kid. Ha, and he's a fearless contacter, it's so great to watch. He like jumps out in front of people so they can't really walk around him and he yells hello with a huge smile and even a bigger American accent. It's awesome, I love it. Our first day together was crazy. Our phone is broken and the alarm didn't go off, even though it was set. So we didn't wake up on time, but it's not like we slept in late. I still woke up then let him sleep longer because President tells us to let them get their sleep to catch up on jet lag. It was funny though because no missionary wants to not wake up on time his first day in the field, so he jumped right out of bed once he woke up and saw it was past 6:30, like he had just done something really bad. It was so funny, reminded me a lot of when I first came here. Then District Conference was in center, which is far away from our apartment, and Guillermo opened his call afterwards. So we were coming home late and the girls from our branch, Veeka, Fatema, and this investigator in our branch that they are good friends with, came home with us, well, to the subway because we all had to go back to the XTZ area. So we're all talking and laughing about stuff, but of course he doesn't understand anything because these girls are the fastest Russian speakers on the planet. It was fun, but then we got off the stop and we are walking back to our apartment by ourselves now. It's already way late, and it's so muddy everywhere because it's been raining for a few days straight. And when it rains here, ukraine becomes one of the muddiest places in the world. And you probably guessed it already, as we are walking home on my comps first night in country he slips and eats it into this huge mud pile. he got duked in mud and it soaked through his suit and it was even all over his garments. ha ha, it was so funny, we were laughing so hard. I'm glad I have a comp who could laugh it off and not get upset about it. So yea, great week. We have another good week set up, meeting with lots of members and trying to find those elect.

Nov 9 - Happy Birthday!

It's been a pretty crazy week. My birthday was a lot of fun, I was on a split and me and Elder Steele both forgot it was my birthday that morning until someone called to wish me a happy birthday. That was funny, and then we had an awesome district meeting (Elder Greener's last one because he's flying home tomorrow), so that was cool. And that night we had a lesson with the coolest member family, and Veeka and Fatema came too. They made a cake with candles and sang and stuff. The cake was like a big, home-made twix/snickers bar. It was way good. Sister Veeta is like our Mom out here, my greenie is going to love him. Oh yeah, my greenie. So the next day Pres Fry called to wish me a happy birthday and said he's going to give me my birthday wish and let me stay in XTZ. Then, he said he wanted me to train here next transfer. His name is Elder Clarkston and he's from Niagra Falls. We don't have any Canadians in the mission, so I guess that'll be cool. I asked President if he likes sports, because I kind of wanted to train an athlete, and so President just read me his profile. He majors in the Bio-medicine stuff, he's a pianist, and he has like 100 scholarships. . . . . so we're like pretty much the same person. Ha, no, it'll be a lot of fun. But my comp has been really sick the last few days and we haven't been able to do anything, it stinks so bad. It's so boring, but he's slowly getting better and better. He managed to make it to church yesterday, but that's all we've done the last couple weeks. I would really like to find just 1 investigator. That's all we're working to do, our goal is just one investigator to strengthen this branch. President didn't want to train here, no one in the mission has ever heard of someone training in this area because it's been so dead for the last several years. It's a good thing I'll have a very undepressed, excited to work greenie. Because it's getting more and more miserably cold each day, it already gets dark at 4, so people get mad when you tract at 6 and say it's too late. Life is great, we are going to have so much fun

Nov 2 - Refiner's Fire

That's awesome that you guys are all doing great and had an amazing weekend with perfect weather at the beach and stuff. Ukraine is pretty much not that. It's already getting miserably cold to the point where you have no desire to walk outside and is starting to snow. There is this swine flu thing that's killing all these people in Chernobyl and around Kiev. It hasn't got to Harkov yet but everyone is still freaking out about it. People are walking around with those doctor masks and stuff. It's pretty crazy.

And as for the Greatness that is the XTZ-Proletarska area, I have nick-named it “The Refiner's Fire: Where Champions are Made.” And that's exactly what it still is. This has kind of been a tough week, but it's an experience that I've realized I need. We dropped our only investigator on Tuesday, which is probably the last thing you want to do as a negative 30 degree winter is approaching and you only have 5 members in your area that will meet with you (But hey, on the bright side, that’s more than we had a few weeks ago). But he wasn't going anywhere and it was time to drop him. He's a great guy though, hopefully one day he'll get it.

But of course the Lord will immediately reward an act of faith like that with a golden investigator just waiting to here our message, right? Ha, yeah. It really makes you think a lot about things, about everything. About what you're doing, what you could do better, how you could better use the Spirit in your work. We started praying more, and more sincerely, and then looking at the map to see where to go. We still don't know if anything has come from all the tracting we've done this week. I was thinking about what it was, I just know there are people ready here, but I couldn't figure out why we aren't finding them. I knew it was our faith, we know we can find people. We're both confident people (probably part of the reason right there). But then I asked myself where my faith was. I thought of Alekseevka. And started to think of who it was that really went into that area and brought it to life. I realized that part of me still felt like I revived that area, I found those investigators for baptism. I got my comp working again. This might be a small exaggeration, I knew that it was a blessing from God to teach those people and have success there. I know that everything we get is from Him. But, I don't know, I think that just made me realize that maybe not all my faith was where it should be, maybe part of it is still in myself and my abilities. So, I figure once we are humble enough and rely on the Lord as much as we should, those investigators will be right there waiting for us. Or, I’ll just get depressed like everyone else here in the winter time. Ha, I'm kidding, but it is already too cold for me, and it is not hard to believe why winter is not the happiest time of the year. But don't worry, me and Elder Moon are anything but depressed.

October 26 - Meal appointments!

…. This week has been great. We set up 2 new weekly meal appointments with part-member families- and weekly meal appointments are more rare than investigators in Ukraine. We are so excited about that, especially with winter coming. It's already way cold, snow will come soon. I can't believe it was 98 in Vegas last week. It was closer to 38 here. And we broke 30 this week at church! We had 31 people in attendance, but 2 of those people came after the sacrament was passed. Overall, this week could've been great, but we're getting stiffed on our investigator lessons. Nothing's coming easy, but we just got to keep doing better and working harder each week. I feel like we're so close to busting open this area, but it's just not happening. We made a great member area book and map that should help this area for a long time, and we're visiting a lot of inactives, because that's pretty much most the members in our area. I really liked what Larry said about focusing on the positives when talking to in-actives. That'll come in handy this week, because we'll be visiting a lot. That's about it for now. I want a good investigator pool SO BADLY though. But this transfer is flying by, way faster than last transfer, because we're working really hard. So we're just going to keep it up and find those people who are waiting for us.

October 19 - More Teaching, Less Tracting

…As for me, everything is just steadily improving. Zone Conference was good but I’m glad we don't have anything else like that this transfer because it took up a lot of time. The branch president's son-in-law finally moved into a new branch, so that’s great for both branches. And this week a few (which is a lot for Ukraine) in-active members came back to church, and they all live in our area. So we have member lessons this week! YEA for less contacting and tracting. :) But I am really getting excited to work this area. I'm going to ask President if I can stay, which means I might train here and be here for a long time. No one wants to be in XTZ for a long time. But I don't know, I just really want to turn this area around. It's been completely dead for several years now and, I don't know, I can't really describe it. Maybe it's partly because I know we can, also because I'm afraid that they might not get the greatest elders in here once I leave. They tend to sometimes do a little damage control by sticking not the best elders in a place together, for example, in XTZ. And it's true that the work is really slow here, we're working really hard and only seeing a little progress each week, but we'll get there. I know we will. So I'm going to ask President to stay, but if I have to train next transfer, I might leave. They never train people here because they don't like missionaries to get depressed their first transfer. Ha ha, it's funny because it's true. This is a good branch though, they just need a lot of help and I feel like we can give that to them. Or at least be a part of it. And I figure that XTZ can't ALWAYS be completely dead, it has to start getting better sometime, might as well be now. I just hope my crappy piano playing doesn't scare away any investigators. People on a volleyball court in front of 100's of people and I would love it and play as best as I could. But put me on a piano in front of 25 Ukranians and I get so nervous, I don't even know why. Elder Moon and I are still having a blast and working hard.

October 12 - Working hard

....This week has been great in the fact that we've worked really hard, the hardest working week I've had in a long time. But we still didn't have a lot of lessons. We only have one investigator, Gareek, who's really cool but isn't progressing until he comes to church. And there are only 4 active members in our area, 1 we can't meet with, and 1 who's always too busy to meet with us. So it leaves us lots of extra time to find new investigators. We just need to turn our contacts into investigators. And we want to visit more inactives but our branch president isn't the most on-the-ball guy and we still need to go over the branch list with him to find out who these members are. We have an old list and I'd tried to just call people from it and it didn't work out. That's about what we're up to right now though. This week will be busier though because we have zone conference and interviews and stuff. So we'll just keep working hard and try to make things happen in XTZ, Heaven knows they're long due for something. Elder Moon and I are having a blast and are staying focused. This will be a great transfer, especially if we can find more investigators. I love you all.

October 5 - Ukranians love Bunco

…. I wasn't expecting to be DL and don't want to, but it's fine. It's no big deal, especially because the other 2 elders in our district are way old, one is going home in 4 weeks, the other in 10. But they are awesome. Elder Ketchum came to Elder Greener, which is also what we wanted. Everything went perfect, this is the first time transfers have ever been good to me, and our district is so cool. Everyone is excited for this transfer; it's going to be awesome. Me and Elder Moon get along really well and have a lot of fun. It's going to be a sweet transfer and we're going to work really hard. In Harkov, we actually watch Conference. There were a lot of amazing talks. I've never looked forward to conference as much as or enjoyed it as much as I did this time. It was really cool, and sadly it was probably the first time in my life that by the end of the meeting, I wasn't ready for it to end. I felt so bad for Pres. Monson's daughter; you guys can't honestly tell me you didn't laugh as she talked about 7 people falling hundreds of feet to their death with that big, happy smile on her face. We were all laughing so much, I felt bad but we couldn't stop. . .

Everything is amazing here and we're loving everyday in the dirty drty XTZ. Ha, oh yeah, Ukranians loved Bunco. We were in charge of a Harkov-wide youth night activity. A lot more kids came than usual and they said it was the best one they've had in forever. It was a lot of fun, they really got into it. That's about it for now, we're going to go play sports. Elder Moon is so excited to be in Harkov and finally get sport P-days. He was 2-time basketball player of the year in Idaho, so I told him they sent him to me so I could humble him :) we'll see how that goes…..

The Singing Ukranians

"This is Lugansk"

9-28-09 Elder Hyer the Chorister

…Elder Moore is getting transferred to the Donboss, and President said in his e-mail that he's giving me a good companion so we can work really hard next transfer. I think and kind of hope I'll get Elder Moon, the kid that kicked me out of Lugansk who Thompson is still training. We'll see what happens. I just what to work hard and get back in to the hang of things.

We set up a basketball hoop in the church parking lot, so now we're inviting kids to come play with us and can start doing basketball contacting, which will probably be the most effective and coolest way to find young guys to teach.

…Every Sunday, I lead the music and have to sing so loud to try and get other people to sing, because the few that do sing more like whisper. Just imagine that, it's like a loud solo every week. Yes, of course it's terrible, why would you ask such a question? Stop laughing, it's not funny either, it's awful. Ukrainians are the worst singers in the world. They don't even like to sing. And it's also because Ukrainians only know about 20 songs which they always sing, so when you sing a different one, they don't even attempt to follow along. After Sacrament, we try and teach them a new hymn each week, so it's pretty much me trying to figure out how to sing it as Elder Moore plays the piano. Yea, we mess up a lot and we all just laugh about it.

Sand Castle Competition

Sep 21 - Fights in Prieshood Mtg?

It's been a pretty good week. We contacted this lady who came to church, and she's planning on coming every week, which is awesome. Her children are JW's, her husband is Baptist, but she's still searching. She seems great, even though she was a little tipsy when I first talked her because it was her birthday and she just drank a lot, but most people you contact tend to be a little drunk or high.

This girl that we teach English lessons to who's like 26 also came to church, which is really cool, but she still doesn't feel like getting serious with it yet. Our best and most serious investigator, Garuk/Gareek, I don't know how I usually spell it, is still the man. He's excited to come to church but works on his Docha on the weekends, but he'll come every Sunday in the winter time. He just needs to pray and gain a testimony about the book of Mormon, he's just reading it like a history, which isn't bad, but once he gets a testimony, it'll be all downhill from there.

So everything is great. Oh, except I will never bring an investigator to priesthood meeting. Never. So I had heard stories when I was in Gorlovka about XTZ, because my trainer and zone leaders that we had lived right next to had all served there for a long time. Anyways, I heard about how the Branch President and his son-in-law really don't like each other, but they are 2 of our best and most active priesthood holders. So I heard of one time when the son-in-law got up during fast and testimony meeting and bore his testimony about how they have a terrible branch president and he won't give him a temple recommend, even though he's worthy, just because he doesn't like him. The son is really prideful and wants to be branch president, he thinks he would do much better, but the branch president doesn't handle the situation well either. Anyway, the son was teaching priesthood and they took shots at each other until it just exploded. They were just arguing and yelling and acting like immature little children. And they wouldn't stop until one stud member just took President outside. I would have been so, so embarrassed if we had Garuk there. I couldn't help from laughing a little because they were just acting so childish..

Also, this girl called us who we contacted who said she read the whole book of Mormon in 5 days and wants to know more, so if she really did, then that will be amazing. My comp is amazed that we got so much success out of just going contacting one time. Oh, make sure to tell Aunt Kathy thanks for her letter that she put in my last package, it was really cool to hear how all of them were doing, I liked it alot. Thanks for everything, love you and talk to you next week.

Sep 14 - Baptism in Alekseevka

This week wasn't as great as I was hoping it would be, but it's still gradually improving. President Powell and his wife came and spoke to us at our zone conference. He's the President of the Eastern European Area Presidency. They were cool and it was really good. He kind of tore into us a little at the start, but after that it was really good. President has been talking a lot about organizing a stake in Donetsk, it's definitely going to happen soon.

Harkov has a long time before that though. Pres Powell told us some shocking numbers. In the Eastern European Area, we have around 34,000 members. About 9,000 in Ukraine, about 18,000 in Russia, and there's an additional 4,000 on top of that 34,000 that we don't know where they are. But of those 34,000 members that we know of, 25,000 aren't fully active. We were shocked. He said even Elder Perry was shocked to hear that because they had just had a seminar with him and the mission presidents. They talked about a lot of stuff from that and things we need to do to move the work forward. It was really good and hopefully we can put those things into affect.

Friday was my comp's birthday party, and he had a really good idea to have a birthday party at the church with some members and investigators, so they could get to know each other and become better friends. Not everyone came that we wanted, but some did and it turned out really good. One guy came who used to come to church a lot, but we haven't been able to meet up with him, so that was great getting in contact with him again. It was fun and cool.

Saturday, this girl we found and started teaching when I was in Alekseevka was baptized, which was so cool. Her brother got baptized first and then he bore his testimony that now their job is to bring their mother into the church. It turned out really well. I spoke on the gift of the Holy Ghost, and then we got to go back to Alekseevka's sacrament meeting the next day to give her the Holy Ghost and confirm her. It was awesome, I loved going back to Alekseevka and seeing everyone again, especially Alla.

Sep 7 - 100% obedience

Wow, this was probably the best, or at least one of the best, e-mail days of my mission. I actrually got letters from several people and an update on the sports world. That's like perfect.

Things are looking better here. We had a good work day yesterday, and I'm excited for the week. Yesterday, all the missionaries walked home with some members and an investigator, which is cool because we all live somewhere along the path between our apartment and the church, but it takes us way longer than anyone to walk home. But once we got into our area, since it was only me and my comp by then, I decided that I was going to contact the rest of the way home. The first lady I talked to was amazing. She was so receptive and already knew the Bible well. She had great personal beliefs about how we live on after death and certain things that she disagreed with her church on (Ukranian Orthodox). She gladly took my Book of Mormon and was excited to read it. She is such a believing person, I really think she'll get an answer the first time she prays, because she seemed really sincere about it. She lives in a small village outside of Harkov though, so that'll make things difficult, but we'll call her and see if we can't meet somewhere. After that, my comp was so happy and we just talked on the way home.

This week is our 100% obedience that we agreed on. So last night we started to call investigators, and people we've been trying to meet up with. We had a really good planning session about what we want to do and who we want to meet with, so it should be really good. We have a lesson with Gareek again on Tuesday, so I hope he's read what we asked him to. We also have Zone conference this week. President Wolfgang from the Area Presidency is here and it's a pretty big deal. So yea, that's about it for now. I'm really grateful and happy that things are starting to look better.

August 31 - New area

That's awesome that Jared and all of you read the Book of Mormon that fast, malodyets. It's like great job. Oh, and I guess no one thought that it was important to inform me that Kevin proposed to his girlfriend, I have to find out through a letter Grandma Hyer MAILED to me. Make sure you tell her thanks for her great letters, I'll probably send her an e-mail today. I love how she writes Kevin Lawrence every time when she's talking about him, so to clearly distinguish and make sure I didn't think that UNCLE Kevin proposed to a girl named Jessica. Thanks for that. And it was cool to find out that Kevin and Katherine went to Argentina to pick up Robert.

Anyways, this won't be a very long letter, because I don't have much to report on. So far, I’m working on making this transfer a good experience. I am starting to fall in love with the branch, just starting to, and even my area and apartment. One of my first nights here, I was saying my night time prayer and had a huge, much-needed realization of how lucky I was to even be out here, to even be a missionary, no matter where it is and how bad the circumstances are. And also how stupid, petty, and selfish it was that I was complaining and feeling sorry for myself. That really helped me out a lot, and my whole attitude and perspective has been much better since then. And we do have 1 solid, fully-active member family in our branch, which is awesome because I didn't think we had any. They're an awesome family. I like them a lot. And this transfer has been great for my Russian, because I study during the down time we have and I'm learning words like crazy. So I guess that's cool too

August 24 - Lucky to be here

I can't believe Robert is already home, that's crazy. It still feels like he has 8 months left on his mission, like he did when I left. He sounds like he's doing awesome though, be sure to send my regards

They tell us not to write bad and negative stuff about the stuff here, so that pretty much means I can't tell you about my new apartment/area/branch. Ha ha, I'm serious. I'm in an area at the southeast tip of Harkov and even goes outside the city. It's called XTZ (Ha-Ta-Za). Yea, it was my trainer’s favorite area, but he was in the good area and good apartment. But we do have like 2 long-time investigators that we're meeting with, so that's cool. And this branch hasn't had a baptism in a really long time, so that means there are tons of people here who have been waiting and getting ready to hear the gospel.

My comp is cool, his name is Elder Moore and he's from Centerville, Ohio. I can help him really get to work here but he's a good missionary and really nice. XTZ has plenty of work to do, so it'll be a great opportunity that I should appreciate more. Really though, I have nothing to complain about, I have so much and I'm so lucky just to be serving, no matter where it is.

The Crittenden bowl was awesome, we killed the other team. I was really sore afterwards though because I was our teams quarterback, but it was so fun. Sister Crittenden was our coach, they got so into it too, they loved it. And they bought us all ice cream.

August 17 - Alla's Baptism

Hey Family,

I don't even know where to start, so much happened this week. It's probably been the best week of my mission so far. Everything has been amazing. We did a lot this week preparing for the baptism, and it was unbelievable. They were so ready. Once Alla came out of the water, she just stood there for a little bit, smiling as big as she could. She was glowing the whole rest of the day, she said that she didn't even walk home- she flew. There was such a strong spirit and everything went perfectly. The talks were great, and we 4 missionaries did a musical number that came out so good, way better than any time when we practiced it. We're so happy for Alla and Vladik, they are going to be great members. Also, earlier that day, there were 2 more baptisms, one was from our branch but they couldn't do it at 5 with our baptism. He is from Africa, there are a lot of Africans here and they are so cool. I am going to tell more about it in the letter that I send to Jesse. Then on Sunday, we gave all of them the Holy Ghost, and that was also amazing. You can tell they really understand the importance of it and how much it will help them.

Then that night, there was a fireside, for everyone, but mostly just young adults go. This district of 4 missionaries was supposed to be putting it on. Me and Elder Whitehead decided to take Vladic to it because we thought he would like it. So we went and it was getting time to start but the missionaries who were supposed to be putting it on still weren't there. So I called them and I guess they had just done the last one, and no one had told them about this. So by now, the meeting was already supposed to have started, but thank goodness Ukranians aren't punctual so it was that big of deal. We were talking with the Crittendens (the CES Senior couple) and a few of the youth there that were kind of in charge about what we were going to do. They were about to not do it and just tell the people to go back home. They reasoned it by saying there weren't many people there, but there turned out to be about 40 once we started. I didn't want that, so I tried to remember any old, cool firesides, and for some reason- not by coincidence- the only memory I could think of was Mom and Dad telling me about one of the adult stake conferences when Bro Hoskin was landing a plane or something and started talking to his co-pilot about the gosepl. So I said we could do funny scenarios and pull the member youth up to try and talk to people about the gospel. So me and a member youth, probably in his young 20's, brainstormed 4 scenarios then I just winged it. There were Africans there, so I just conducted and did everything in English while the member translated for me. I was just praying the whole time that it would turn out OK and they wouldn't hate it. And by some miracle, it turned out awesome. The loved it so much, everyone came up to me afterwards to tell me about how great it was. They were the perfect crowd to do it with. I was so, so grateful afterwards. So please send me any other cool fireside ideas, they come in handy.

Today, we are having the Crittenden bowl with all the missionaries in Harkov. The senior couple here, the Crittendens, are leaving next week, and they always say how they miss coaching sports, especially football, because that's what they did their whole lives. So I had the idea to have a big football game with all the missionaries, and have elder crittenden on one team and sister crittenden on another team. I asked if they were free this p-day and could do it, and they said of course. So I picked teams, then called the district leaders to tell each member of their district which team they are on. So now, half of the missionaries are wearing white t-shirts that say Sister Crittenden on the front, with a number and nickname on the back. And the other half are wearing red shirts with the same thing, except they have Elder Crittenden on it. It's going to be awesome, and the Crittenden's will love it. So this weekend and this whole week has been unbelievable, the best of my mission,.

Baptism!

Moving to Lugansk

How do you like your neighbor?

"If only we had baptisms it would be like South America"

Abandoned Puppies Part 1

Abandoned Puppies Part 2

Goats grazing at the church

Sleeping in Donetsk

Missionary Hating Dog

Missionary Hating Dog

Having a Party

Having a Party

Having a Party

Doing Service

Doing Service

P-Day in Gorlovka

P-Day in Gorlovka

P-Day in Gorlovka

P-Day in Gorlovka

P-Day in Gorlovka

P-day in Gorlovka

August 10-2009 Not just Mo-Tab anymore

Everything is going great. We're ready for the baptism on Saturday, it'll be Alla, Vladik, and this guy, Michael, from Africa. We hope there will be an english speaking branch in Harkov by the end of our missions for all the Africans that get baptized here, they're the coolest people. Alla is amazing though and reads so much, and because of that she asks really good questions. She's already read Gospel Essentials, the Book of Mormon and D&C, and like every Liahona and other thing we've given her. She's amazing. Saturday is going to be a special day.

This last Saturday we had a branch picnic and we went to this town Sokalova, that is about an hour outside of Harkov. We went to this cool museum that would've been really cool if everything wasn't in Ukranian and I could understand something, but it was still a nice museum. And then we had our picnic next to a big sunflower field, and the weather was perfect so it was really nice.

We're trying to meet with some really cool people that we've talked to, I hope we can meet with them this week. There is this one 18 year old kid and his mom that came to English and were interested in talking about the gospel afterwards. They came up to me to ask about it so we taught them and gave them a book. They seem great and he said he wanted to meet after English this week. We couldn't meet with Urie this week but we have a lesson with them tomorrow so that should be really good.

Last week, the wall fell off only Mo-tab!!! I haven't listened to anything but Mo-tab for the last 5 months! See if you can figure out a way to e-mail music to me. Anyways, I love Alekseevks. President promised me I'm staying, but it doesn't always work out. I think I'm staying here with Whitehead one more though. I want to stay for 3 though, even 4. I love it here.

August 3 2009-Eating radioactive cucumbers

Anyways, life is still great in Alekseevka. Alla is still amazing and she and Vladic will get baptized on the 15th. She's so ready, she could've been baptized yesterday, but it's a lot better for them to do it together. And I guess Vladic's mom lives here too, just not with them, which is weird, but we hope to start teaching her too. Also this 20 year old member here had us start teaching his sister (we think they are twins). She's just a nice, quiet girl, and there's nothing stopping her from joining the church. She just needs to gain a testimony and her brother is a great help and influence in doing that. He wants her to get baptized so badly, ha, he's a great brother.

Urie and his family, still want us to come back but his wife is starting to seem more interested and ready than he is. He's really been studying the Catholic church and is on that probationary time thing where if he is a good member for a certain amount of time, then he can join. They are such a great family. We are just doing everything we can to connect with them. I would do anything to find out what they need or how we can get them to see that this is the path for them. We watched that Together Forever video this week and we feel like it would be good for them to watch as a family. They are just so perfect for the church, I don't know what I'd do if they reject us. It would be hard. But that's not going to happen, they're ready this time around and we're going to stay with them. Last time we gave them a commitment to read the Book of Mormon a little and pray together each night as a family and see how it affects their family. I hope they're doing it.

As for Dad's question and if we eat good food. Yes, we do. I love most all the food that people have fed us here. Our area of Alekseevka gets fed more than any other area in the mission, so it's amazing. Except Monday, I ate the nastiest thing I have yet to eat in Ukraine. And you'll never guess what it was. . . . it was just a big, unpeeled, radioactive cucumber. I don't know, but the skin was just unbelievably disgusting, no matter how much salt I put on it, it couldn't overpower that taste. You're probably thinking, "Oh, it was just a cucumber, it couldn't have been THAT bad." IT WAS. It was awful. I'd probably drink Cameron's "Guaranteed-diarrhea Chilean Mormon Coffee" that we had down there before one of those. It was difficult to eat. They have tons of fruits and vegetables here too that are so good. And right now, there are watermelon and cantaloupe stands on every corner. So life's great. It sounds like you are all still doing great. And I was just informed that we flew into Ukraine 5 months ago. Ha, fastest 5 months of my life, but at the same time it feels like I've been here forever.

July 27-Investigators in Alekseevka

All is still great here in Alekseevka. We are going to put Alla on date on Tuesday. She's already a better member than most. She always stays for all 3 hours, participates a lot, and reads the scriptures a lot more than we even do. She's just awesome. If she's on track and hasn't drunken any tea or beer recently, then we'll probably put her on date for the 8th. My comp also wants to baptize her 10-year old grandson on that day, and he has come to church with her and stuff, but he's only sat in on part of the 2nd lesson, so either we have to start teaching each of them individually or I think we'll push it back a little. So we'll see what happens.
But the story of this week happened when I was on a split with one of our zone leaders, Elder Ketchum from Iowa. He made a computer program that sold for $3 mil before his mission but he didn't get any of it because he was an intern. We have a lot of missionaries that have done pretty amazing things, like one already owns a business and another only has to write his dissertation to get his PHD, and a few others have done stuff like that.
We didn't have any lessons so I decided to start calling old investigators out of the area book while we were talking and getting to know each other. Elder Sutherland, my trainer, served here for only one transfer and I called this guy that they found and he said we could come over that evening. We had a really good contacting session, then went to the lesson. It was absolutely the best 1st lesson I've ever had with someone. We taught him, his wife, and they have 2 young sons. The lesson lasted 1 1/2 hours, but it didn't feel that long. They were amazing, and they definitely could be ready this time around. They asked questions that you just don't hear. They still occasionally read out of the Book of Mormon that they had, and the wife asked us "I know we can feel the Holy Ghost when I pray and read the scriptures, but is it possible to have it with you all of the time?" What?! Of course not, why would you ask such a ridiculous question? We told here it was very possible and talked about it, while also answering their other great questions. Towards the end the wife started to cry as she told us how this reminds her of how happy she was when she met with the missionaries the very first time 7 years ago. I'm so excited to meet with them again. They are such a great family, you can easily see how much they love and care about each other, and they have so much potential.

My Ukranian Hats

the one on the left is like a Newsies hat, but everyone has them hear, and the one on the right, well, let's just say I'll save that one for when I'm no longer a missionary :)

The Lugansk Song

July 20 - Teaching in Harkov

I hope Thompson's greenie is enjoying all those investigators we worked hard to find, because starting from scratch again is gay. No, I'm kidding, it's not that bad. I like contacting and we've been having alot of success with it. Our investigator Alla came to church yesterday with her grandson. She was great and participated in all the classes. We picked her up and I talked to her a while about the book of Mormon and the Bible, and about what she read in the book of Mormon and some other stuff. She's a smart lady and a great investigator. She said that she and her husband loved to drink beer together, but one night he got wasted and fell into the subway and got killed. Yea, I didn't know what to say either when she told me that. But they loved church and the members were great to her. Also, yesterday when we were contacting, we had one of the most powerful lessons that I've ever experienced. We contacted this lady who didn't want to talk to us at first, but we asked her some questions and she suddenly just opened up to us. She started to cry as she told as us that her husband of 30 years past away, then shortly after her daughter did, and she lost contact with her sister also. She said she was a good Christian woman who follows the commandments and asked why God punished her and why all of this happened to her. We just testified that she could see her family again, and that we couldn't understand how she feels but Christ could because he already suffered everything for us. We committed her to read Alma 40 that night and promised her that it would comfort her, and that when she read it she would feel Christ's love for her and that she's not alone. She's the perfect person that needs to hear our message about the Restored Gospel. Rarely, if ever, do we have a street lesson that I continue to think about throughout the day. Usually you contact a person, then kind of just go to the next one, but I'm still thinking of that one, it was so powerful. The work is picking up and we're actually finding people to meet with who aren't ,e,bers, which my comp said they didn't do all last transfer. So we're grateful for the success God's given us so far and hopefully we can just keep it going.

Ward Party

Gorlovka at Dusk

First District Mtg.-3

First District Mtg.-2

First District Mtg -1

July 13 - White-washing

Yea, I got transferred, so it stinks that me and Thompson didn't stay together, but I like where I am now too. I'm in Harkov, yes the great land of Harkov that is amazing for everything but missionary work, so they say. But I'm in Alekseevka, in maybe the best branch in the mission. We get fed by members 3-4 times a week. I can't even describe to you how amazing that is, that's so not Ukraine. Usually, if you get fed once a week, it means you have a good area. The Branch here is amazing; they'll be great to work with. My companion is Elder Whitehead from St. George. He's cool and we'll have a good transfer together. The sad thing is we have 0 investigators and not really any prospective investigators. I kinda feel like we're white-washing or something. They just didn't have much success last transfer. The last two days while we were contacting I've given out two books to these cool, interested people and they gave me their numbers, so hopefully something comes from that. My comp said those are the first legit books they've given out in over a transfer. Hopefully we’ll get things going here.

So I’m on my 4th transfer, 5th companion, and 4th city because of the emergency transfer and switch and everything in my 2nd transfer here. Life's good though, it was sad to leave Lugansk, but I like where I'm at. We just need to get some investigators and it would be amazing.

July 6 - Leaving Lugansk

I'm getting kicked out of Lugansk for a gay greenie. Yep, Thompson's training, so I already hate his greenie for kicking me out of this great area with all the work we having going on. As far as the ones that have committed to baptism, Tattuyana is working to quit drinking tea and coffee; Kereal just needs some time to make the decision for himself and know that his parents will still love him; Toleg is ready and is awesome. We've taught him the 1st three lessons, he's almost done with the Book of Mormon, and he's just really sincere about what he's doing. He wants to find the truth and live correctly, and he asks great questions, he wants to get baptized and for the right reasons. It's so hard to meet with Katya because she's working so much, I really want to meet with her again. Our lessons were always so great with her. This was a great week. A while ago, our mission was challenged to get 15 quality lessons, a lesson with a prayer basically, but it’s really hard to do and most missionaries never get it. We somehow got 16 this week, it kinda just happened. We had a lot of lessons with investigators, so that was awesome. We met with this guy Anatoleg, who's a smart guy and understands everything really well. We had a good lesson with him. Also we had a Ward Picnic on Saturday, but it rained so a lot less people came and we had to do it in the church. It was still fun though. Sunday was just an awesome day. More people came to church than I've ever seen, over 50 people! It was such a great testimony meeting too. It's probably my favorite church service since I've been in Ukraine. Then after church, we had 2 lessons with investigators, one lesson with a member family, and then our regular night at the president's home. It's just unusual to be this busy in Ukraine and I so don't want to leave. Me and Thompson serve so well together and the work is going great and it is so gay that I have to leave again. It all makes sense for him to train right now though, so I'm not mad, but I just don't want to leave.

June 29 - They think he's Ukrainian

We are finally meeting with Katya again tonight. She's been working non-stop ever since she moved out of her parents’ house. I was talking to her on the phone last night to set up the lesson and she said she'd been reading the Book of Mormon and writing down questions. She just sounded so happy and said that it was true. I've rarely been as excited for a lesson as this one, probably not since Pavel. I was saying the other day how we have a few investigators with a lot of potential that are just teetering, they can either go one way or the other. We met with Andre last night and he said he's just happier when he's with us. We talked about the future, his plan and what he wants to do. It was really good to talk about all that and just to meet with him again. It's still hard to meet with Tatyana, but she's pretty good at coming to church. We're still working with Kereal, trying to meet with Vuta, and a few others. We got to go to another city and visit this member family who was amazing. And they had this young baby that was about the same age as Alina, so that made me a little home-sick, but the family was great. And we made some delicious chocolate chip cookies for district meeting. It's really big news that Michael Jackson died, that was really random to here. Andre said four Ukranians committed suicide because of it, which is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Also, I don't know why eeryone here knows about Obama killing a fly during an interview.

Oh, yesterday, I had a hilarious conversation with this guy. I was just getting to know him and I told him my name and that I was from America. He told me to continue about America in an interrogating manner and I said I was from Vegas and talked about it. Then he started to kinda yell, or talk firmly to me, to stop lying and using this fake accent. He said my face doesn't lie and he knows I'm from around here. He said like Ukranian/Russian/Baltic area. That's the first time I've ever heard that. Everyone says I look so American. And earlier I told him I'd been in Ukraine for about 4 months and he's like, Oh? And you already speak Russian? I said I studied a few months before that and he was like Oh, and you already speak and understand everything? I said I definitely do not, I'm American, this is a real accent, and I was laughing the whole time. He said again that my face doesn’t lie, and that he was from new York, and then went off on all this stuff. I was cracking up and I didn't understand what he was saying, so I told him that and he was like "You understand me perfectly!" I was laughing so hard because he thought he was this really smart guy busting some Russian punk trying to use an American accent and making up a story.

June 22 - Six months out

Our investigators are still doing great. Four came to church yesterday, which is a pretty big deal here. We were way excited about it. Also this strange guy we had talked to on the street came to church a little early to talk to us, but he didn't stay for the meeting. He was strange and thought we had connections with Obama, everyone here thinks we're friends with the President. We found out later, after he left, that one member actually works for him. He's like a millionaire and one of the richest guys in the city. So, we decided we'd pay him a visit. His house is huge. Well, it's way smaller than our house, but it's nice and huge for Ukraine.
We didn't meet with Tatyana during the week because she was sick, but she came to church yesterday. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and she committed to live the law of chastity and pay tithing. It was a great lesson and she's still on track to be baptized on July 4. She's doing her reading in the Book of Mormon and has already read like four Liahona's. Tomorrow we're teaching her Lesson 3 with the Word of Wisdom, so hopefully that'll be good too.
Tonight we have a family night with Kereal, Anya, and their grandparents again. He talked to his parents and we think he got permission to get baptized. We'll find out tonight if he will be on the 4th too, that would be so great. We met twice with this teacher whose husband of 33 years passed away 6 months ago, and she's been having a hard time. She was a member referral and she needs the church in her life. She read the proclamation to the Family, the Living Christ, proclamation to the world, and some scriptures. She said she 100% agrees with everything, but now that school's out she just wants to take a break from life and go down to the sea for a little bit. She wants to meet when she gets back, and I think she'll join the church then. She's a really nice lady and I know it would help her a lot. Vuta also came to church for the first time yesterday, but she could only stay for Sacrament. Our lesson with her on Friday was very eventful. We were teaching her Lesson 3 in the park and all was going well, until in the middle of the lesson, this lady asked to sit down by us because she wanted to sit in the shade. It was weird but we couldn't really say no. She started to ask us questions and be annoying. She moved to the bench opposite of us, right next to our investigator, so she could talk more. We told her we were teaching, so she stopped, but interrupted again to disagree with something we said, right when we started teaching again. She knew exactly what she was doing trying to ruin our lesson like that. We looked way better in front of our investigator than she did, because we refrained from arguing. We had to ask her to leave, but she wouldn't so we moved to a new spot. Other than that, the lesson was good. Everything is still great. Me and Elder Thompson are best friends and just like serving together. We had a party to celebrate my 6th month mark. We made a good dinner with the district and I totally failed in burning a tie.

Gorlovka Part 4

Going to Gorlovka Part 3

Going to Gorlovka-Part 2

Going to Gorlovka

June 15 - We have a baptismal date!

The work is still going great. None of the investigators we've been working with came to church yesterday, but this other guy came for the 1st time, and he was pretty early so we taught him a lesson before it started. Also, this lady we had contacted and given a Book of Mormon to on the street came to church. They both stayed for all 3 hours, and then we had a lesson with the lady afterwards. She loved church and is a really nice lady. She is searching for her purpose in life. She said her purpose used to be her children, but now they're all grown and she doesn't know what it is. She loved and accepted everything we taught her, and she said she wanted to be baptized. So we put her on date! I always thought that it would be so weird to put someone on date during the first lesson, but it wasn't. It just felt right, and she accepted it. It was so cool, we meeting with her again on Tuesday. We'll going to try to meet 3 times a week. Her name is Tatteeyana, I guess that's how it sounds. We're really excited, and it gives her a realistic goal to work for, which I think helps investigators a lot. That was the highlight of the week

We had zone conference on Wednesday, where we had to wake up at 4:30 in the morning and got home after 10. It's like a 4+ hour drive into Donetsk on a bus. Zone conference was really good though, we had a discussion about the weaknesses of the mission and how we can improve, that's usually what President talks about, though. The church patriarch was there too giving patriarchal blessings to the people, so he talked to us for a little bit after he finished those. He was a really smart guy who knows like 5 languages and knows the gospel really well. That's about it though, make sure Dad keeps working everyday so everyone else can keep enjoying a fun summer.

June 8, 2009 - We have investigators!

Me and Elder Thompson have an awesome companionship. We both like to be obedient and work really hard, but enjoy ourselves while we do it. Here's a little description of each person and what's going on.

Katya- We've taught her the 1st 3 lessons, and she has a ton of potential. The Spirit is so strong when we teach her. During our last lesson, I testified to her that what she was feeling was the Holy Ghost, testifying to her that what we were teaching is true. And while I did that, I spoke better Russian than I'm capable of, too fast and with too few mistakes for me to do. It was an amazing experience. She moved out of her parent’s house, which will be a really good thing if the friend she moved in with isn't a boy. She just needs to keep reading and praying, and come to church again.

Kereal- the one who reminds me of Jared. He's just a cool, nice young kid. Anya and his grandparents are members but his parents aren't, and we don't think they are anti though. We just want him to be a missionary one day. He's had the first three lessons, and is ready to be baptized.

Vuta- She is very accepting and listens intently when we teach her, but I don't know how strong her interest is. She didn't do her reading when we followed up and taught her the 2nd lesson, but we emphasized the importance of reading and praying alot when we taught her. We'll find out how comitted she is when we teach her lesson 3.

Andre- We finally met with him last night, and he's still awesome, but he just needs to commit. He's still working on quitting smoking and waiting to get married. He needs to quit waiting and just do it. We want to help him more and get over smoking, but he's always working and never has time to meet with us. Last night was a good start to that though, so hopefully it keeps going that way.

Mike- We teach him in English because that's why he started talking to the missionaries, and he speaks English almost fluently. We talked to him in a park one day for about an hour about the Book of Mormon, and he had some of the best questions I had ever heard. He's a smart, nice guy who could be a great priesthood holder. We really want to get him to church next week, but he's already reading the Book of Mormon.

That's about it for now, It's getting way hot. This week is supposed to get into the low 90's with 100% humidity. I like riding on hot busses that smell like sweaty Ukranian men in my church clothes. And the people here think it makes you sick if you drink cold water when it's hot out, so they give you nasty, warm, gas water or hot tea when you visit. It's great. Well, hope all is safe and well, we're loving life here.

We got videos and pictures! There are some below and we'll be adding more everyday!

6-1-09 - Cooking and Teaching

С Днём Рожденья (Happy Birthday) Бабушка Питерсэн (Grandma Peterson)!!! I told all the missionaries that you're turning 31 today and still getting younger. And Happy Anniversary to you both as well, sounds like a weekend-long party at the Peterson household. So I write you last week knowing that I was going to be the only one staying in Lugansk. But as it got closer to transfer meeting, more rumors/secrets start to leak out. And I was hearing more and more that SISTERS were coming to Lugansk (I say that with love and excitement, not fear and frustration). It's just that having sisters in Lugansk means we would have to do everything with them and we'd have to have 4 elders so there's not a Double-Date District meeting every week. And sisters always get the best apartments so I was thinking I'd have to move all my stuff out of Center, which is the perfect location for an apartment, and leave my area. All that came true except for the last part. I'm currently in a 4-some. My comp is way cool and we're already way good friends. We both like to work as hard as possible and enjoy ourselves while we do it. And we both love sports. We thought it was going to stink, because we have 2 beds, a couch, and 1 closet. That's not that bad, because we just got another mattress, But mainly not having a oven isn't very cool. We just have 2 hot plates and the grill thing I just bought. We're making it work though, and let's be honest, it's alot of fun. I actually really like it because 4-some's are great if you all stay working hard and do everything you're supposed to. Obviously breakfast and dinner take longer for 4 people, especially when you only have 2 hot plates, but other than that it looks like we're going to stay focused and diligent. Andre still works all the time and is really hard to meet with, but our 2 new investigators have a ton of potential. There's the Katya girl I told you about and this older lady, 50ish maybe, that I contacted on the street named Vuta (Victoria). We had a lesson set up with Vuta, in the park but it was one of the weird Ukranian weather days where it pours rain for 5-20 minutes, then is sunny and warm for 5-20 minutes. But God stopped the rain long enough to have a good lesson where she listened intently and was really interested. Then at the very end of the lesson it started to pour again. Musiurenko was like 'Yea! Testimony for her!" in his thick Ukranian accent. It was funny. We're meeting with her tomorrow again, so we're really excited about that.

Our 2nd lesson with Katya wasn't under the most desirable conditions, she was feeling sick and had a bad stomach ache, and her member friend Anya felt really sick and had bad allergies. But they both still came! So that was great in itself, and the lesson went really well. She also listens intently and took notes, copying down the whole Plan of Salvation. Part of me felt like it was to discuss it with her JW father at home, but she's awesome so it doesn't matter. I mostly just remember the end of the lesson, when she prayed to Heavenly Father, using her own words, for the first time in her life. The Spirit was overwhelming, and I just felt so happy and proud of her. It is so strange to someone like me who grew up with that, and seeing someone look like a child again, doing it for the first time. Just a simple, innocent, and direct prayer to their Father in Heaven. I wanted so badly to ask her if she felt the Spirit while she prayed but she was clutching her stomach the whole time and I knew she was in pain, so I don't know how it would've gone over. We have a lesson set up with her tomorrow, I hope she did her reading and praying so badly. We have a few other people we're meeting with or about to meet, but the work is looking really good right now.
There's these really cool kids who come to sports night, and like me a lot because I play basketball and talk about sports with them. We think we can get them to come to church with us. They're like 17ish and just really cool kids. Last thing, there is what they call 'Fluff' everywhere. It's the white stuff from dandelions, and it is EVERYWHERE. It looks like it's snowing with no gravity. I wonder if this happened to Brady? It was cool the first day because I had never seen anything like it, but now it's just the most annoying thing in the world, especially on days when your allergies are acting up. So life is great here in Lugansk, have lessons set up with members or investigators most everyday, which is amazing. And me and elder Thompson are really excited to work together.


5-25-09 - "A Fetching Transfer!"

They are taking Misiurenko from me! We recevied a fetching transfer call Friday morning. We thought for sure we were going to stay together for one more transfer. We kept saying we were doing awesome and wanted to stay in our letters to President each week, but I guess that didn't work. It was funny because he can't really write in English so he never writes President, but last week this return missionary in the branch who wanted both of us to stay helped him write one and it was all about wanting to stay here. This was supposed to be the smallest transfer ever because no missionaries are leaving and only one new missionary is coming in, but a ton of people are being transferred and a lot of areas are being white-washed. They pretty much white-washed Lugansk too because I'm the only missionary staying here, all the other missionaries here are being transferred. So, next time I write home, I will be the most experienced missionary in Lugansk with 3 weeks experience. Ha, that'll be fun. I hope my new comp likes to get lost a lot. But this week has been pretty good. The zone leaders came and went on splits with us, so that was cool. The week was actually pretty crazy, but I finally got to meet our investigator, Andre. He's a stud. He's a young guy in his 20's, he's read the Book of Mormon, D&C and is in the Pearl of Great Price right now. He's quitting smoking and saving up money to marry his girlfriend that he lives with. He has a testimony that it's all true, but he needs to take a leap of faith and sacrifice work to start coming to church, so that's what we talked about the whole time. We also found this new investigator from a member referral. She's this teenage girl who is really just searching for the truth. Her mom is the general Orthodox religion and her father is a JW. She isn't really satisfied with those and so is meeting with us. She's great and really eager to learn everything, and has a lot of potential. She has good questions, but also her father gave her some of the Anti-Mormon JW material to read and bring when she meets with us to asks questions. She doesn't really buy into it though, and sides with us on most all of the questions. We're meeting with her again on Thursday before English class, so that should be really good. Other than that, we just meet with the members and contact.


5-18-09 - Loving Lugansk

We still don't have much going on here. I guess we have one solid investigator who wants to get baptized but needs to quit smoking and is saving up money for him and his girlfriend to get married because they live together. And we also have another investigator that still needs to read and pray and gain a testimony. This is just what my comp told me because we still haven't met with them since I got here. We've called but they've been busy, so hopefully we can meet with them this week. I am still loving it with my comp, I would say his name but I'm not sure how to spell it in English. I've never been so immersed in the language like this, because we spend a lot of time with the youth members too so it's just a lot of Russian. I can feel my understanding of the language gradually improve everyday. But Lugansk is still great, the city is awesome and the people are cool. We do a lot of contacting and a lot of walking around the city. Our area is HUGE. It's bigger than all of Gorlovka, it's pretty ridiculous. But we go contacting a lot, and they have a weekly youth and sport night here so that's a lot of fun. I didn't tell you about what happened my last English class in Gorlovka. I told all the girls that I was leaving to Lugansk. Then this week after English class, the Gorlovka Elders called me and said they didn't come back. Ha, hopefully it was a one time thing. It was funny though, after my last class I taught there, they all came up and asked for my info and if I was on facebook. I told them I couldn't go on until after my mission, so they asked how much longer I had. They all got really mad when I said I still had 1 1/2 years and they said "Elder Hyer, we like it when missionaries come to Gorlovka at the end of their missions, not the start." And they continued to tell me about that. I just laughed and said I didn't know that but I'll be sure to remember it. The Gorlovka Elders just laugh about it and make fun of me alot for it.



5-11-09 - Missionary = Police?


Elder Hyer was transferred to Lugansk this week. His new companion is from Kiev so he is really speaking a lot of Russian. When we talked with him on Mother’s day he had only been there a few days. We had a great visit with him. He wasn’t going to write on this Monday but he did stop to answer one of his dad’s questions.

When we are tracting we usually don't say who we are until they ask, we just say we have a message about. . . . whatever we feel like we should say. Then, if they ask, we just say we are representatives of the church because the word missionary is similar to police, so it could sound like that through a door.



5-4-09 - "It Just Comes?"


One day we had to go into Donetsk for interviews with President Fry, on Friday we had Zone Conference here in Donetsk. We just talked about how my Russian is doing and how I'm studying. Russian is still really hard to understand, I hate the phrase "It just comes" because that's what every missionary says. I'm seeing that though and it is coming, it would be really cool if it would hurry up though. It's fine though, they say I speak really well for a new missionary, but that doesn't mean anything. I don't let it get to me though, but of course you get frustrated at times. I'm learning to rely on the Lord more and really pray.